Below are some tidbits on baseball and sportscard collecting.
Visit our web site for more info on vintage and current
baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sports and
non-sport cards and card collecting.

Q6: What are some additional useful to know baseball card collecting terms ?

(part 2)Error Card - essentially, a card with a wrong player photo, inaccurate bio, or any
characteristic that separates it from correctivity. Baseball card history is
rich with such mutations. Anything from the 1957 Topps "reversed negative"
picturing Hank Aaron in his opposite batting stance, to the infamous 1983
Fleer Billy Ripken "obscenity" card which depicted a not-so-politically correct
4-letter word at the end of his bat handle.

Extended Set - Also frequently called Update Set or Traded Set.
defined as a set issued after a company’s original release to
"update" the regular set and include players traded to another team and shown in
their current uniform, or rookie cards of players featured in a single-photo.

Facsimile Autograph - a simulated autograph printed on a card designed to show what the
player’s actual signature looks like. These are NOT the player’s "real"
autograph.

Factory Set - a complete set in a special box and wrapped with a protective covering
produced by the manufacturer, usually with a unique seal and sold directly
to dealers or card shop owners and not available through the usual
retail outlets.

Grade - the physical condition assigned to a card, either by a price guide, or
through the assessment made by sellers.

Graded Card - a card which has been assessed for condition by an independent source
and given a ranking, with 10 being the best. The card is then placed in a
hermetically-sealed plastic holder with the grade designation and player name,
card company, card number, and serial number printed on the encasement.

The issue below is featured elsewhere on this website:

1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man TOBACCO

Red Man Tobacco issued baseball cards in 1952, 1953, 1954 and 1955,
making them the only tobacco company to do so since 1920.
The cards are very attractive with a large, painted portrait and a short
player's bio on the front. On the back is company advertising.
1/2" tabs at the bottom of each card could be exchanged for a prize.
The exchange rate was 50 tabs for one free Big League style baseball cap.
Thus, cards with the tabs still intact are much, much, harder to find
making them more valuable.

Without the tabs it is difficult to determine which year certain players
were issued. It is usually easiest to determine the year by looking at the
expiration date on the back. Subtract 1 from the expiration year to determine
the year of the card.

Each set is made up of 25 players from each league all personally selected by
Editor J.G. Taylor Spink of the "Sporting News".
Managers from each league were included in the 1952 and 1953 sets.
The 1954 set had four different variations.
If you ignore the many variations of the expiration dates,
that brings the total to only 208 cards to complete your
Master Red Man Tobacco Baseball Card Set !!! Start collecting now !

1969 Topps Stamps

This was Topps 3rd stamp issue in the last eight years and it was a good one !!!
The stamps were not inserts but a totally separate issue .
For a nickel you got a strip of twelve stamps plus a mini album.
The 1969 Topps Stamps complete set contains 240 stamps. The 1 x 1-7/16 inch
stamps were unnumbered and featured a color photo with the player's name,
team and position inside a colored banner at the bottom of the stamp.
The stamps were released in both vertical and horizontal strips of 12
stamps. The 1969 Topps Stamps are often confused with Topps' 1974
issue. The 1974 Topps Stamps have ovals rather than banners at the bottom
and were released only in 12-stamp horizontal panels.

Along with the stamps, Topps also issued a set of 24 albums, one per team,
to store them in. The 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" orange albums were the same size
as a baseball card and held a complete 10-stamp team set.
To add even more collecting fun, the album's back cover had
facsimile autographs of the ten players shown in the album.

The 1969 Topps Stamps set is packed with stars like Pete Rose along with
tons of Hall-of-Famers including MICKEY MANTLE, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente
& many, many more !!!